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iPhone 6s Plus vs iPhone 7 Plus

Goodbye headphone jack, hello optical zoom

The most visible difference between iPhone 7 Plus and iPhone 6s Plus is that the newer model has ditched the traditional headphone jack in favour of wireless headphones, like Apple’s own AirPods. But look closer and you’ll see that iPhone 7 Plus has quite a number of significant improvements.

Arguably the biggest advance is that iPhone 7 Plus features dual rear cameras. The two are cleverly designed to work together, with the second camera giving you 2x optical zoom without the need for a built-in retracting lens. iPhone 7 Plus also captures a wider range of colours than iPhone 6s Plus, and the impressive new ‘wide colour’ screen ensures you get the full benefit of the improvements.

Faster chip, better battery life – but what’s the catch?

iPhone 7 Plus boasts the A10 chip. Apple’s first quad core chip, the A10 is 40% faster than the A9 featured in iPhone 6s Plus.

Apple claim that iPhone 7 Plus has up to 1-hour longer battery life than iPhone 6s Plus. But it’s worth remembering that if you use ‘wireless’ talk time and ‘wireless’ audio playback you’re actually going to need to charge your iPhone 7 Plus more frequently. For example, iPhone 7 Plus boasts up to 60 hours’ wireless audio playback, but the 6s Plus will give you up to 80 hours’ audio playback with traditional wired headphones.

If there’s one downside to the iPhone 7 Plus, it’s that you can’t listen to audio on corded headphones while it’s charging, as the included headphone adaptor phone slots into the Lightning port. So you’ll either need to buy a special two-in-one cable jack or invest in some wireless AirPods for listening to music or watching videos.

But if you want to benefit from Apple’s fastest ever chip, best ever screen, most advanced camera and added water and dust resistance – the iPhone 7 Plus is certainly worth the extra spend.